Set in a former motel, Faith Arts Village Orlando (FAVO) at 221 E Colonial Dr, Orlando, Florida 32801 features 36 Studios of amazing original art. On the first Friday of each month the artists open their studios to the public for an open house. I stop out periodically to see what is new in the Orlando visual arts scene.
On this trip I was so pleased to find that Kathy and Eric Blackmore had a studio set up. Kathy uses the space as a classroom for her private art lessons with young students. She is a children’s book illustrator and creates gorgeous delicate watercolor paintings for the books. She began this career when I worked with her at Full Sail University. Her husband Eric is a wildlife and environmental photographer and some of his landscapes were on the studio walls. He is also an amazing woodworker who creates custom furniture. Because of this the small studio space is magnificently designed with storage spaces and modular shelving and table tops that can be folded into place.
It is a sweet little set up and it must bustle when Kathy’s students are busy creating. Eric is also a professor and each year he escorts students to exotic locations around the world. He and Kathy therefor get to explore and be inspired by someplace new each year. While Pam and Eric talked, I scribbled as fast as I could to document and memorialize the studio. We explored the rest of the studios, but spent most of our time in the Blackmore studio which exemplifies what is great about FAVO.